


Reconciliation

by Heartensoul



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:08:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24212650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heartensoul/pseuds/Heartensoul
Summary: Summary: Everyone’s getting sick at the Air Temple. Katara needs to chill in more ways than one, and Zuko gets a clue. Zutara/E! rating, obvious deviation from canon.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 290





	Reconciliation

Reconciliation  
By Crystaltear  
Fandom/Pairing: Avatar: The Last Airbender; Zuko/Katara  
Rating: E!, just to be safe (leaning more toward M.)  
Word count: 2,733  
Warnings: Spoilers up the The Dragon Dance episode (season 3, episode 12, I think.)  
Notes: Originally written for 2008’s Church of Lemons and reposted in celebration of the series being back on Netflix. Obvious deviation from canon.

Summary: Everyone’s getting sick at the Air Temple. Katara needs to chill in more ways than one, and Zuko gets a clue. 

\-------------

Of all the things Zuko tried to imagine he would be doing once he joined the Avatar’s group--teaching fire-bending, plotting how to overthrow his own country, fighting along side the very people he once swore to capture--taking care of a group of kids like a nurse never once crossed his mind. This was not to say that he didn’t like helping out with tending to the sick. On the contrary, it allowed him to dig deep into his fondest memories of his mother, the nurturing way which she had always handled him, and later how his uncle had watched over him while in Ba Sing Se. What he hadn’t been so fond of was the battle that occurred just so that he could help.

The virus began with Toph, whose frequent coughing set concern among all of them, a concern that turned to a slow-brewing panic as she became too ill to move out of a horizontal position and the cough spread to Teo and Haru. When The Duke followed the trend, Katara quarantined the sick into one area, hoping to stop the spread of illness. 

With Katara busy trying to nurse the others back to health, those of them that remained tried to keep the plan alive. Sokka secluded himself in an eastern wing of the temple, attempting to put together a plan of action that would give the Avatar the opportunity to take on the Fire Lord. Meanwhile, he continued to train Aang as well as circumstances allowed: The boy was obviously preoccupied with his concern over the others, especially of one in particular, and his focus was lacking. By the third day, Zuko noticed sluggishness in Aang’s movements that had nothing to do with preoccupation. By afternoon the coughing had begun, and Zuko carried the young Avatar into what had become their makeshift health center.

When he entered the quarantined area he was immediately met with a disapproving glare from Katara, a glare which softened into remorse when she finally noticed Aang nestled against his back. She ushered him over to a clear area and set up a space for her new patient.

“How are the others doing?” he dared to ask. He was still not on the best terms with the water-bender, and he always chose his moments of communication with her very carefully.

“Toph and Haru are getting better quickly. Not much of a change in the others,” she responded, her mind too distracted to care who it was she was having civil conversation with. She helped ease Aang off of his shoulders and onto a small makeshift bed, where she then rested the back of her hand against the arrow on Aang’s head. Her nose wrinkled as she made of face of disappointment and pulled herself back up to her full height.

“He’s got it, too. Great.” He watched as she stepped toward him, noticing the weary mask over her features for the first time. She eyed him critically, and he stood still, anticipating the coolness of her hand against his own brow.

It never came.

“You don’t seem to be suffering,” she dismissed as she side-stepped him and went to get a sheet to cover Aang. 

“I don’t get sick often.” He tried not to allow his tone to betray his disappointment. “I think it's best that I keep away from your brother though, to play it safe.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll help around here in whatever way I can.” He held out his arms for her to place the sheets in, but she breezed passed him. He stared at her retreating figure, her long, dark hair waving him off. Determined, he followed her back to Aang’s side.

Zuko watched as she situated the sheets around the boy with care, and when he finally stirred, her face lit up with warmth. She whispered comforting words and stroked his forehead gently, easing the ailing Avatar back into a cough-filled slumber. He was torn between his feelings of helplessness and envy. 

“What do you need me to do?” he asked, desperate to prove his worth in anyway possible. Even if they couldn’t accept him whole-heartedly as a comrade, they could at least allow him to do the chores of a servant.

“I need you to go away,” she dismissed him once again, just as easily as the first time. “I don’t need your help.”

The familiar heat of anger filled his body and the tingling of his hands signaled the energy waiting there at his disposal if he so chose. But he had shunned that life and that way now, and he took a calming breath and allowed it to wash over him completely before stepping in front of her and facing her head on.

“I’m not going to let your wounded pride get in the way of making sure our mission is completed,” he told her, his posture strong but not rigid, with enough space between them so that she would know that he was not trying to intimidate her.

“My wounded pride!”

“Yes. You’re still hurt that I betrayed you in Ba Sing Se and you’re not going to forgive me for it. I accept that. But you’re exhausted and you can’t keep taking care of everyone on your own.”

He was sure that she would slice him in two with a sheet of ice through his middle at that point, but her eyes flashed with anger and she stomped in the other direction, her hair whipping wildly behind her. He went about helping the kids as best he could without instruction and didn’t see her the rest of that day.

\---------

The present day marked the third of which he and Katara had danced around each other in the small space while tending to the remaining group. Their combined efforts had finally sent everyone but The Duke and Aang back out among the other areas of the temple. He tended to The Duke quietly, every once in awhile warming the damp cloth on the young boy’s forehead by pressing his palm lightly against it. The orphan, who he learned had lost his family due to the Fire Nation, didn’t seem to mind Zuko’s presence. Of course, he was half conscious most of the time, but that he didn’t put up a fuss about the former fire prince taking care of him further helped to ease the tension that had settled within Zuko since he had arrived.

As the boy slipped into sleep again, Zuko left his watch and headed down the hall toward Aang’s area. Katara had been keeping a faithful vigil on him since he had become sick, straying only when it was necessary to tend to the others. As Zuko had taken on making the meals and the others returned to health, Katara’s movement from Aang’s side lessened, until she did little more than two rounds of making sure everyone else (meaning everyone but Zuko) was still feeling well. Her faithfulness to the Avatar was apparent, although it possessed a mothering quality that she showed in varying degrees to all of her companions. The Avatar’s faithfulness to her was just as strong, though Zuko knew his pupil would be disappointed as he grew old enough to acknowledge the differences. Zuko tried not to acknowledge the part of him that had not been disappointed in noticing those differences, or the fact that as the time passed he grew less disappointed to be excluded from Katara’s motherly mannerisms.

As expected, it was beside Aang’s bed that he found her, her head cradled in her arms as exhaustion finally swept her away for a quick nap. He side-stepped her carefully and peered down at Aang. His apprentice looked settled in his sleep but still pale, and he calculated it would still be another couple of days before there would be any movement from the bed. He reached to pull the cover a bit higher over his body when an arm shot out and intercepted him. Surprised, he looked down at where Katara sat, now awake and angry for finding him in what she considered her turf.

“He seems to be doing better,” Zuko said, ignoring the heat that was radiating from the spot where she held his arm. He realized with surprise that it was the first time they had touched since her fingertips had traced his scar during their imprisonment in Ba Sing Se.

He cleared his throat to relieve some of the dryness. “You should go rest while you have the opportunity.”

She flung his arm away. “I keep telling you, I don’t need your help! Now get lost.”

Zuko made a grab for her shoulders and pulled her toward him, leaning forward so that their faces were only inches apart. “And I keep telling you I’m not going to do that. I’m here to help you, whether you like it or not.” Her lack of struggle was a testimony of how tired she was, and being so close to her face allowed him to see the light shadows under her eyes. He reached out and traced them lightly, mirroring the motions she had created months before and watching as her eyes went wide in surprise.

“You don’t need to take on all the responsibility yourself,” he murmured, and then he tasted her chapped lips under his own, felt how the tip of her tongue darted out to moisten her own lips in a conscious effort to make them more inviting. His hand slipped back toward her hair, his fingers twining in the dark tresses that were tucked behind her left ear. He felt her hands tuck themselves into the folds of his shirt, clutching and releasing the cloth as the seconds ticked by. It was those hands that lightly shoved him away when the sound of movement came from behind him.

“Katara?”

“I’m right here, Aang,” she called, moving to his side as he opened his eyes seconds too late to see the scene that it had been. Zuko stepped back, accepting his temporary defeat in light of her motherly instinct. But now that she had finally given him a favorable response, he would not be leaving it be for long.

\-------------------

It was as she came back from checking on Sokka that he finally intercepted her. She gave a squawk of protest as he grabbed her by the waist and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack.

“Zuko, what the hell are you doing? Let me go!” 

“Making you take a break. Now shut up before you wake everyone up.” He walked through the maze of hallways until he reached the room that she had claimed as her own, all the while she squirmed in his arms and elbowed him in the back of the head. Once he entered the room he dumped her onto the bed and laid across her before she had a chance to scramble out of the way.

“Now, go to sleep.” 

She stared at him as though he had lost his mind. “How the hell am I supposed to rest with you on top of me?! You idiot!”

He figured she had a point, so he eased onto his elbows. “Well if you cooperate and relax, I’ll get up.”

“Fine,” she huffed.

“Fine.”

He shifted carefully off of her and slid down to the floor and sat cross-legged. He turned his head to the side and glanced up at her: true to her word, she remained on the bed, still glaring at him. He blew a piece of hair out of his eyes and turned to face the wall.

“You’re going to stay here?!”

“For now. I’m going to check on Aang and The Duke in a bit, but I’m going to make sure you stay in bed for awhile.” He heard her huff behind him, but she didn’t move from the bed. In a few short minutes, all stirring stopped and her gentle breathing was all that could be heard in the room.

\------------

Zuko woke to the feeling of icy droplets rolling down his face. His bleary eyes opened to find Katara leaning over the edge of the bed, her lips curved in a smirk and her hand manipulating a small ball of water. Noticing his return to consciousness, her fingers twitched ever so slightly and he felt another icy prick drop to the side of his face and begin its descent down his neck.

“I don’t recall you saying you would be sleeping as well,” she said, her attitude fully back in place now that she had gotten some sleep.

“Slight change of plans,” he muttered back, pulling his stiff back from the edge of the bed. He stood up, but before she could scoot herself off of the bed he leaned down again, trapping her at the edge with his arms at either side of her. She opened her mouth--to complain again, no doubt-- and Zuko pressed his lips to hers in a continuation of what had been interrupted the evening before.

“You’re so frustrating,” he murmured when he finally reached her neck and felt her tilt her head to allow him better access. “But I’m not going to let you push me away anymore.”

“You aren’t exactly a model of--” she began, but she allowed the thought to die when he reached the bottom lobe of her ear. Moving slowly to ensure he never lost contact with her, she scooted back to give him room on the bed and pulled him forward, allowing him to kneel on the soft fabric.

Impatient to take off her clothes, Zuko shooed her hands away to untie her fastenings and then struggled with her wrappings. He gave up on them quickly and mourned the loss of skin to touch, but found wonderful compensation in the length of skin of her inner thighs and the quiver of her stomach as he touched and explored. 

“Don’t do that,” he hissed as she rolled her hips to meet his, making him unsteady. He guided her toward the back of the bed, pressing her back against the far wall. Once there, he sat between her legs and pressed against her fully, moaning into her collarbone as his body screamed to be released from his cloth entrapment. Even through the fabric the slight curvature of her slender but athletic body drove him crazy, and he arched against her as her hand slid between them and rubbed against his groin. She cried out when he nipped at her shoulder in retaliation, and he took the opportunity to rid himself of his pants, slipping them down to the knees that pressed into the bed and bunching where their descent ended. 

Her hand, still wavering between their bodies, captured his length in its palm and slid against the heated skin as it responded with growing hardness. Zuko’s hips met each stroke until she pulled away and grabbed for his hand that had had been busy teasingly drawing circles along the inside of her thighs. He chuckled when her hand guided his to where she wanted it, where he knew he wanted it, but he continued to tease for a few moments more by allowing the tips of his fingers to only brush against her folds lightly before tracing a line up to her navel. She growled at him then, the sound shuddering through him and causing all play to be forgotten. He finally complied with both of their needs and touched her, his reward the sound of her beautiful moans and the pre-mature feeling of being inside of her.

He touched and nipped and felt until the throb of his own desire screamed for satisfaction, and only then did he enter her, lifting her onto his hipbones and relying on the support of his knees and the wall to support them both.

\---------

“Well, that was counter-productive. Now I’m exhausted again,” Katara said minutes after they had slid down the wall, spent and aching. Her fingers threaded through Zuko’s hair playfully, his head resting against her stomach. 

“Your sharp mouth never stops, does it?” His knees ached in protest, but he didn’t wish to move yet.

He let out a yelp as there was a tug on the strands. “I’ll show you what this sharp mouth can do,” was the challenge issued, and then all talking ceased.

-end.


End file.
